


Dreams

by SpyVsTailor



Category: Alien: Covenant
Genre: F/M, Gen, Tumblr Ask Box Fic
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-06-06
Updated: 2017-06-06
Packaged: 2018-11-09 16:47:43
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,241
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/11108712
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SpyVsTailor/pseuds/SpyVsTailor
Summary: Based on a Nonny ask over on tumblr. Walter waking only Daniels up at some point while the rest of the crew is still asleep.





	Dreams

**Author's Note:**

  * Translation into Русский available: [Сны](https://archiveofourown.org/works/11175792) by [curious_Lissa](https://archiveofourown.org/users/curious_Lissa/pseuds/curious_Lissa)



“Walter,” Mother cooed to him. “There is a malfunction in one of the pods. Life support is failing.”

Looking up from watching the stars drag by the window on the bridge, Walter asked, “whose?”

“Daniels Branson.”

Running from the bridge. Walter made a sharp left into the hall that led to the room where Daniels pod rested. He knew the room well, it had become one of his favourite on his tour around the Covenant.

Kneeling by the side of the pod, he frowned at the inferior design of it. Weyland-Yutani were his makers, he could see no wrong in their company or all it stood for, but he also knew a design flaw when he saw one.

Someone was going to die in the pods one of these days.

But not today. Daniels was too important to the mission to lose.

Pressing in his override protocols, he safely began the sequence to wake Daniels up. If he had been any later she would have run out of oxygen, as it was he moved across the floor to prepare a mask for her to breathe into.

As the lid was finally retracted from the pod, Daniels burst upright, coughing and vomiting. Walter waited for her to heave out a healthy amount of stomach bile and watery liquid from the feeding apparatus, before offering her the oxygen.

She inhaled deeply, before turning her face away and vomiting again.

“We will get you situated in a new pod soon enough,” Walter said, hoping to ease her concern.

Her dark eyes just gazed at him, before she blinked and said weakly, “Walter, I just got pulled out of–” she broke off to vomit. “I just got pulled out of one of these things,” she murmured, wiping puke from her mouth, “I’m not getting back in one for at least a lifetime.”

He was quiet. There was nothing he could add to improve the situation. Daniels would have to get back into the pod, but he also understood her concern. They were flawed.

Patting his shoulder as she hopped down from the pod, she swayed a little on her feet, unsteady from lack of use.

Walter steadied her with his arm, her hands clutching at his forearm.

“Water?” She asked.

He waited until she was strong on her own feet, before moving across the room towards the cooler where water was kept, clean and fresh.

“How long have i been out?” She asked.

“Nine months,” he said.

“I’m a pretty big baby,” she teased half heartedly.

Walter returned with her water, offering her one of his rare grins.

She snorted into her water. “Is that really how you smile or are you mocking me?”

His smile died.

“It’s just, you look like you’re gonna eat me while smelling something nasty.”

“I’ve been working with Mother to improve my smile,” Walter said. “She informed me that the first grin programmed into my core functions was too ‘sharky’. This smile only flashes the top teeth, less predatorial.”

“You have put a lot of thought into your smile,” she mused, walking across the room to where Jake was hanging, still in his cryotube.

Walter watched her walk with protective eyes, worried she may yet collapse onto the hard floor.

“Wow, this place is creepy with everyone out,” she mumbled.

Walter quietly followed her, walking in her footsteps until he stood just behind her.

Sipping her water, she turned to him and asked, “so,what do you do for fun?”

He blinked.

“I know!” She beamed. “Chair races down the halls? Only, I guess with just you, it’s Walter trying to beat his record?”

“Forty-three seconds from bridge to cargo hold,” he stated.

Daniels laughed. “So, you have tried it!”

Walter was quiet.

“You are the Space Cowboy,” she teased, heading for the door.

He wanted to remind her that they needed to return her to her pod, but he also wanted to see what she was up to, she mystified him sometimes. So he followed her, walking just behind again as she wandered the halls and corridors.

“Do you know who the Space Cowboy was, Walter?” She asked, calling over her shoulder as she moved freely around the Covenant.

“Steve Miller Band, The Joker, 1973,” he explained. “Some people call me the–”

“You don’t need,” she interrupted him quickly, “to do that.”

They moved into the bridge and she just climbed into the Captain seat. Not only boldly climbed there, but tucked her bare feet up under her.

Figuring with bare feet that she may be cold, he moved to a nearby emergency closet and pulled out a blanket kept there for shock victims. He would wash and replace it later.

Draping it over her and around her, Walter wrapped her up.

“You don’t nee to do that, Walter,” she said.

He was quiet, standing beside her.

“Wow, we must be the only living things awake for light years,” she mused, eyes on the endless stars.

Wanting to object to her error of calling him ‘living’, he opened his mouth, but closed it again.

“It’s kind of scary, isn’t it?” She asked. “How do you do it?”

“Do it?”

“How do you handle the loneliness while we’re in hypersleep?”

This was a curious question which Walter didn’t quite know how to answer. “It’s my job,” he said, hoping it answered her question.

“But don’t you get lonesome?”

“I have Mother and tasks to keep me busy.”

“Do you peek into our dreams?” She teased.

The synthetic feeling of shame came to him, it was more like the opening of a program within him, one that made him still in fear, while drawing his mouth closed more securely. He supposed to Daniels, it would look like he was pressing his lips between his teeth.

Her dark eyes turned up towards him as she took another sip of her water. “What do I dream about? I can’t remember having any.”

“Snow,” he said. “You always dream of snow.”

“What do you think Jung would say about that?”

He was quiet.

“You do know Jung, don’t you?”

“Yes.“

“If you could dream, what would you dream about, Walter?”

He didn’t know, when even attempting to access that query internally, he came up blank. Nothing came to his mind. But with a burst of colour, he saw plants. Rows and rows of flowering plants and sunshine.

“Flowers,” he said.

“Flowers?”

“I believe I would dream of flowers.”

She smiled gently. “Why flowers?”

“Flowers are simple, they need only simple things to thrive.”

“Not because of the colour or the scent?”

He was quiet.

“Well,” Daniels sighed, setting her water aside, “maybe when we get to Origae-6 you can open up a greenhouse or something.”

There would be no greenhouse for Walter, he didn’t have the chance to tell her that he was to be decommissioned once they arrived at their destination. Or perhaps he had the chance, but he didn’t have the words.

In order to protect the humans of the Covenant, he wasn’t meant to subject them to such troubling thoughts. Being decommissioned was like death, it was a final act. Humans found it disturbing to think about.

He wouldn’t worry her needlessly.

“So?” She asked playfully. “Chair race then back to sleep?”

Her slanted, wicked grin was returned by his own.

“We’ll work on that grin when we get home,” she teased, pushing to her feet. “Because it looks painful.”


End file.
